Sunday, 31 August 2014

It’s
all very well being selfless and baking to please others but sometimes you just
need to be selfish and bake something to please yourself! This week I had
a hankering for blueberries baked in a simple sponge with cream cheese
frosting. Et voila! I think blueberries are my favourite fruit to
bake in a sponge – I love the way they break down, bleeding their juice into
the sponge and also the magnificent pop of colour you get when cutting a
slice. It’s particularly effective when the outside of the cake is so
plain and pale.

The
cream cheese frosting is my favourite as it’s so smooth and creamy. It’s
great to team with a crumbly sponge because you can take some on the fork and
use it to pick up all the crumbs. This is one of my tests as to whether
someone is a true cake lover or not. (It may also double as a test for
greedy guts! If so, I am guilty!) A true cake lover will always gather their
crumbs and eat them – after all, they are just smaller versions of the slice of
cake. An occasional cake eater will eat the slice and leave all the
debris on the plate – it’s a total giveaway that this is not my kind of person!

I
think this cake looks really good and could easily take pride of place on the
afternoon tea table; don’t however assume that means it is difficult or time
consuming to make – it is neither. The sponge recipe and method is as
basic as possible, as is the frosting. It’s an example of great flavours
and ingredients producing something simple but delightful.

Foolishly,
I made double the amount of frosting. I
cannot explain what possessed me other than a greedy stupidity that the amounts
set out in the recipe below didn’t look enough.
Hence, I was left with a large amount of cream cheese frosting. We always joke that cream cheese frosting is
so lovely we could just eat it by the spoonful so, eyeing the strawberries and
left over blueberries I had sitting in a colander I threw together an impromptu
dessert. Serve it with some crisp
biscuits if you want to look fancy.
Bonus dessert....the best kind!

Start
by making the sponge: beat together the butter and sugar until pale and
whippy. Don’t be tempted to skimp on this stage – it needs a lot of
beating.

Beat
in the eggs one at a time, adding some of the flour if it looks like it’s
curdling. (NB. If you have beaten the butter and sugar for long enough it
will not curdle – so if your mix does make sure you beat for longer next time)

Beat
in the vanilla.

Stir
in the flour.

Gently
stir in the blueberries taking care not to burst them.

Spoon
the batter into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Bake
for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out
clean.

Leave
to cool in the tin for about 20 minutes before de-tinning and leaving to cool
completely on a wire rack.

Now
make the frosting: start by beating the butter until it is pale and whippy.

Add
the icing sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth and well combined.

Add
the cream cheese and beat until the frosting is smooth, thick and fluffy
looking. I like to take a small amount, place it on my tongue and then
press it up against the roof of my mouth – if I cannot feel any sugar crystals
and the texture feels smooth and uniform i.e. no blobs of cheese in there, then
I know it’s ready. If the beating has made the frosting too soft to
comfortably spread refrigerate for 20 minutes or so.

Monday, 25 August 2014

Mr CC has been muttering of late that I don’t make
his favourite sort of cakes. The poor thing is practically malnourished due to
my neglect! When I asked him what were his favourite sort of cakes he replied: anything that Mr
Kipling makes. Now don’t get me wrong; I am not (ok, I try not to be) a
cake snob and will happily enjoy a Mr Kipling cake if there’s one on offer…but
the thought of choosing one over a nice home baked treat is something I
struggle with; if Mr CC heard my dramatic in-take of breath at his comment he
didn’t let on.

Mr CC mentioned, in particular, almond slices so I
pondered how to take the essence of a Mr Kipling almond slice and pimp it up a
bit. I decided on adding a pastry base, chopped cherries and some thick
white icing. It then dawned on me that what I had actually created was
the lovechild of a Mr Kipling almond slice and bakewell tart…and it tasted as good as you’d expect!

If you’re pushed for time you can forget the pastry
and simply bake the filling; the result will be a very pleasing almond
sponge. The cherries work so well with almond. Whilst I still can’t
manage half a glace cherry on top of a cake, chopped into small pieces I rather
like the fruity –almost jammy - chewy little pop they bring to
proceedings. The cake will keep for days - anything with almonds seems to
get better day after day as the nut oil is released.

This basic recipe has some alternative options
available – omit the cherries and replace with fresh fruit such as raspberries
or blueberries; you could also add a layer of jam between pastry and filling.

Sunday, 17 August 2014

This
is a recipe that has been on my ‘to bake’ list for far too long. Before
baking them I had never eaten an Anzac biscuit but I knew I would love them as
they contain three of my all-time favourite ingredients: oats, coconut and golden
syrup.

Anzac
biscuits originated in war-time and were, so the story goes, a popular biscuit
sent by Australian and New Zealander wives to their soldier husbands serving
overseas. The biscuits are egg-free (like so many war-time recipes), keep
well and are robust enough to withstand transportation. There are stories
on-line that the military-issued Anzac biscuits were quite different to these
lovely home-baked treats; made from hard tack – a long life bread substitute
made from flour, water and salt – the soldiers referred to them as ‘dog
biscuits’, ‘tooth dullers’, ‘sheet iron’, ‘molar breakers’ and I suspect
several other names that I wouldn’t be able to include on my nice, family
friendly blog!

I
made two batches of biscuits; the classic version and a chocolate chip
version. The latter is identical to the former but for the addition of
some chocolate chips, which melted due to the hot butter. Both were
lovely! The biscuits were crisp and chewy with a lovely buttery
taste. These aren’t tiny, thin little biscuits that you eat without
knowing; these are substantial hearty biscuits – perfect with a big mug of tea.

This
recipe came from the BBC Good Food site (I love that site!);
some of the commenters said the mix was too dry and they had to add milk. To combat this, in my chocolate batch, I
added 2 tablespoons of golden syrup which is why they spread much more than my
plain batch (which used 1 tablespoon).
You don’t need any extra liquid and I think I twigged why people may
have had a problem. The key to shaping
these biscuits is to do it while the butter is still warm; as soon as it starts
to cool the mix becomes crumbly. Work
quickly and it’s fine.

Sunday, 10 August 2014

A
lot of my baking recently has been selected based on the limited time I had
available and how low faff the recipe was. Rather gloriously, this
weekend I was able to accommodate a bit of faff, which was fortuitous as I had a
hankering for pastry. I’ve adapted this recipe from the BBC Good Foodwebsite and used dates and sultanas instead of glace fruit. I still find glace
fruit hard to love and had a box of dates a friend had bought me back from Oman (thanks, Jasmin!) so the stars seemed in alignment to make this happy substitution.

Normally,
when a recipe gives the option of soaking fruit in either rum or orange juice I
will ALWAYS pick rum. But I fancied a change this time so surprised
myself by opting for orange juice. It did a nice job of plumping up the
fruit and added a fruitiness to proceedings.

The
filling is reasonably runny pre-baking so, although you mix the fruit into it
do not be disheartened when you cut into the tart and see the fruit has settled
at the bottom. This is what’s meant to happen.

Fruit
aside, the tart filling is virtually identical to a bakewell tart. If
you’re fed up with jam or berries in your bakewell this recipe provides a nice
variation. The pine nut and honey topping also makes a tasty
change. I don’t use pine nuts very often in my baking but they work very
well and take on a lovely toasted flavour.

The
flavours in this tart are gentle and harmonious. There are many different influences in this
recipe and I struggled to think how to describe it. If you like bakewell tarts, baklava, Eccles cakes,
marzipan and sticky toffee pudding you will love it!

Start
by making the pastry: place the flour and butter in the food processor and
blitz until you have fine crumbs.

Add
the sugar and blitz briefly.

While
the machine is still running tip in the egg yolk and the water.

Stop
the processor when clumps are starting to form.

Tip
the clumps out onto a sheet of clingfilm and, using your hands, bring them
together to form a ball of pastry. Handle only enough to achieve this –
you don’t want to overhandle the pastry and make it tough.

If
you wish to make the pastry by hand rub the butter into the flour until you
have breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, egg and water and, using your hands,
bring together to a ball of dough.

Roll
the pastry out between two sheets of clingfilm so it is large enough to line a
23cm round loose bottomed tart tin. Don’t expect lots of spare pastry overhanging
the tin – this recipe makes just enough!

Prick
the base of the pastry with a fork.

Cover
with clingfilm and refrigerate for 1 hour.

While
the pastry is chilling, start the filling: place the raisins, sultanas and
dates in a bowl and add the orange juice or rum.

Stir
so all the fruit is covered with liquid and leave to soak, stirring
occasionally if you happen to pass by.

Preheat
the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

Cover
the chilled pastry with baking paper or non-stick foil and weigh down with
baking beans.

Bake
for 10 minutes, before removing the paper and beans and baking for a further 5
minutes or until the pastry is just starting to turn golden.

Remove
from the oven and put to one side while you make the filling.

Reduce
the oven temperature to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Now
make the tart filling: beat together the butter, sugar, flour, almonds and
eggs.

Stir
in the soaked fruit, including any liquid left in the bowl.

Spoon
into the pastry case and level the surface. It will look full but don't worry - it doesn't rise much on baking.

Scatter
the pine nuts over the top.

Drizzle
over the honey.

Bake
for approximately 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the filling
comes out clean.

Sunday, 3 August 2014

I’ve been baking
a lot with fruit and ‘lighter’ summer flavours of late. This week I just
wanted something sinfully chocolatey with that lovely rich ‘stick to the ribs’
quality. Chocolate, ricotta and almonds – perfect!

This is almost
gluten free…I know that’s not very helpful and also not possible: something is
either gluten free or it isn’t. I point this out simply because, if you
needed it to be gluten free, I wonder whether you could substitute more ground
almonds for the flour; it’s only two tablespoons after all? If any gluten
free bakers know whether this would work please let me know via your comments.

Realising I knew
very little about ricotta I did some research. The first thing I learned
was that ‘ricotta’ literally means re-cooked. I think this is because of
the second fact that I learned: ricotta is produced from the by-product from
the production of other cheeses such as mozzarella. It’s made from the
whey that’s left behind when the curds are strained – a bonus cheese no less!

The cake is
meant to be served warm; I liked it at room temperature too but the texture
becomes a little heavier. This isn’t a bad thing as, like all (almost)
flourless cakes the sticky, squidgy texture is a joy. Serving it with
cream was probably an unnecessary indulgence but… I apologise for nothing!
(smugly award yourself bonus marks if you know which – admittedly obscure –
cartoon character I’m quoting!)

Beat together
the butter and sugar until light and fluffy – do not skimp on this stage as
this is your chance to get lots of air into the mix.

Add the
chocolate, egg yolks and ricotta and stir until just combined.

Stir in the
ground almonds and flour.

In a separate
bowl whisk the egg whites until they reach soft peaks.

Fold the egg
whites into the chocolate mixture. This is best achieved by stirring a
spoonful of whites into the chocolate to slacken the mix, which will make the
rest of the egg whites easier to fold in.

Pour into the
prepared tin – it will be quite runny.

Bake for
approximately 30 minutes or until the cake is set around the edges but retains
some wobble in the centre. A skewer will not help you here!

Leave to cool in
the tin for 10 minutes before attempting to de-tin. It will settle a little as it cools so don’t
panic!

Serve the cake
warm (although I liked it just as much at room temperature!) with thick cream.

Read my novel! Yes! I wrote it!

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The Caked Crusader and Boy Wonder

Cartoon by Cakeyboi

About Me

So, the answer to the question you’re all asking: who am I? Well, a superhero never reveals their identity. I think it’s stated somewhere in the contract when you sign up for superhero-dom. Let’s just call me THE CAKED CRUSADER. By day (and night if I’m being honest) a mild-mannered City professional, but at weekends I become THE CAKED CRUSADER. Tirelessly fighting anti-cake propaganda and cake-related injustices – for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS NEEDS CAKE (we’ll just skip over the fact that it’s usually me).

Batman’s got the batmobile, batcave etc. Superman does just great what with being able to fly and being really strong. Spiderman’s got that web thing going on. But I have better than them. For I have a credit card and could get one of these:

The purpose of my blog is simple – to spread the word that CAKE IS GOOD.Yes, it is calorific; that is why it tastes so nice.Yes, too much of it is bad for you; that’s what ‘too much’ means.Yes, we’re all told to eat healthily and we know that we should. But ask yourself this – and look very deeply into your soul before answering – when has a cup of tea and a carrot ever cheered you up? However, put that carrot into a cake and happiness will ensue. Quod erat demonstrandum – CAKE IS GOOD.

This site will catalogue cakes I have unleashed unto the world and my thoughts thereon.

By the way, I will never recommend how many portions you should get out of a cake because we’re all different. Plus, it will be very embarrassing when I say it serves 4 and you get 20 portions out of it.

WARNING: Too much time spent on this blog may cause hunger.

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If so, please let me know and that cake could win a coveted CAFTA award. Email me your suggestions, with a photo of the cake if possible.

About Me

I am a 40-something Chartered Accountant working in the square mile.
My main hobbies at the moment are baking, and setting the world record for the number of cake tins owned by one person.
I spend far too much time watching Spongebob Squarepants and would love to try a Krabby Patty...I know, I know - it's not real.